Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1887-03-17
WANDERING MINSTRELS.

Gaily the troubadour touched his guitar
AS he was fastening home from the war
Singing "From Palestine hither | come
Lady love, lady love, welcome me home
The lines awaken vague associa.
ton of old romance, Of love in song
and story, but very little il thought
Of the important place held by the
minstrel poets in their day and gener-
alton. The songs they sang were
their own, and though avowedly the
poets of love, war was as often their
theme. They aourished in the north
of Italy and south of France from the
eleventh to the fifteenth century, and
some of their metrical accounts of
battles and heroic acts, particularly
the epics of Bertrand de Born, have
been accepted as historical chronicles
of the days of chivalry.
They chanted of war and mighty
deeds of valor, at the bidding of war;
like monarchs and doughty knights,
in tented fields and lofty castles, but
it was of love and courts and high.
born ladies (who mostly held them in
great esteem) that the troubadours
most loved to sing, and the passion
that their numbers celebrated these
gallant Ministries themselves either
felt or feigned in the highest degree
Like the knights of their time, each
devoted himself to some fair lady,
and was supposed to live only for her
sake, while to be more worthy of her,
he cultivated courtesy of manner and
purity of life, or at least, what was
80 considered in those days OF easy
morals.
Their romantic lives were filled
like their poetry with passion, des-
pair, jealousy, revenge and wild adj
ventures, and terminated often in
tragical deaths. Some of them aimed
loftily in selecting q lady love, and
one of their craft, Bertrand Venta-
dour, himself the non of a servant,
was the favored lover of Eleanor, the
queen of Henry II, of England.
One of the troubadours most dis
tinguished for genius and extrava-
CANT adventures was Pierre Vidal.
His tickle fancy led him to frequent
changes in the object of it; and HE
inordinate vanity led him into auda-
cious acts and indiscreet boasting,
which sometimes won severe lessons
for him from indignant husbands and
bl others Once, finding the beauti
ful Duchess Of Rogue MARITIME asleep,
he had the impertinence to kiss her.
In her wrath she banished him from
Marsailles, and he went with the cru
saders to the Holy Land, where he
was made the victim of what we
should nowadays call practical
joke.
The crusading knights disguised
low woman as Empress of the Orient,
and informed him that che loved him
and wished to marry him. He i'm
mediately feigued an immense attach
ment for her, assumed royal robes
and title, and erect I'd throne for his
bride, the waggish barons supplying
money to carry on the farce for a
short time, but on finding himself ths
object of a joke, poor Vidal fed TO
Europe, there to be the victim Of
genuine passion for a lady whose
name signifies the wolf. In compli.
ment to her, be clothed himselfin the
skins Of wolves and allowed shepherds
and dogs to pursue and attack him
till he died from fatigue and loss Of
blood. 1t is TO be hoped that his la
dy Of the savage name was pleased
with the delicate compliment paid to
it by her late lover, but history is ST.
lent concerning her feelings.
Another troubadour whose love cost
him his life was William de la Tour.
His lady eloped with him from a hus.
band who, if history is to be trusted,
was infinitely his superior. The re
creant wife probably took this view
Of it later on, for she died of remorse
for her act. Her lover refused to be
comforted for her loss end rejecting
food or drink, haunted the vault in
which her body lay, taking it from it's
resting place and caressing and adj
dressing it in the most extravagant
manner. After ten days of this in
sane conduct, he was driven away by
the country people, and after wan
'rjng about short time died in dis
P,
beoffrey Rudel was troubadour
! who made a pilorinnaos In the Holy